Agile Software Development Methodology: Is It Worth Implementing?
What is Agile?
In a world where new technologies are emerging now and then, the survival of the firm catering to the instant changes and demand of the situation is manifested. This is where the term AGILE meaning quick and coordinated movement comes into play.
A key element of agile is flexibility in response to change. In a way, it allows you to successfully deal with unpredictable and turbulent circumstances. This caters to understanding what’s happening in the environment in which you’re working today, identifying the uncertainty you’re facing, and planning ahead on how to handle it as the situation changes.
This has led Agile Software Development Methodology to replace the traditional methods, which doesn’t stand a chance when we talk about building software customized as per customers’ demand in a specific period. Throughout most of its history, the term agile software development methods have been associated with the development of software and IT application projects, and to date, the term has left its footprint in the software industry.
What is Agile Software Development?
In the development field, it refers to the principles and values mentioned in the Agile Manifesto. In the case of agile software development, a project is categorized into smaller tasks delivered to the client systematically rather than delivering the entire project in one go. The intention behind this is to deliver a quality product in a shorter duration based on customers’ requirements and reviews. Different organizations prefer different frameworks and popular tools used in agile software development. However, succeeding with agile software development using Scrum seems to be new for companies to this work culture.
Cultural Transformation: Need of the Hour!
Before we get into the details of cultural transformation required for the agile software development model, let’s understand what culture is. Then, we can simply put culture as to how things work around a particular workspace.
What is an agile culture?
An agile culture is a form of workspace culture in which the core value and ethics revolve around respecting every individual in the workspace and working as a team rather than competing with one another. This leads to consideration of brainstorming ideas of team members, better estimation of delivery time, and greater accuracy in client satisfaction.
Critical cultural change element in agile transformation
The agile development methodology is all about the mindset and the process rather than a destination. The aim of shifting to agile culture is ultimately to deliver the best product to your users. However, the most challenging factor in moving from the traditional to agile culture in software development is following such guidelines.
Team In Charge Of Decisions Making
In agile culture, the team members are expected to cultivate new ideas, be creative, and most importantly, find a way to work together, unlike the traditional culture where members were supposed to follow a set of instructions or procedures of working in case of agile culture.
Solution: The team leaders must foster their decision-making skills and problem-solving capabilities. The team members should be trained to collaborate with the team and find the best practice they would like to follow.
Sudden Spotlight
In agile culture, everyone is expected to raise their voice in the daily standups, retrospective meetings, and sprint reviews to put forward their opinion to complete a task. Now, in traditional culture, team members were familiar with taking orders from their manager, who does most of the talking in the meeting.
Solution: The organization should bring to the notice of team members the benefits of voicing up. Due to the transparency offered in agile culture in software development, the success will go to the whole team rather than the team manager.
Increasing Communication
Communication is an essential aspect of an agile team. It is expected from developers and other departments to communicate how they prefer to work and figure out the best approach for software development.
Solution: Instead of using a matrix to determine the tester or developer who performed the best, the managers must focus on building team spirit in individual members. For example, the issues that arise due to bugs in software should not be blamed just on the testers. Instead, the whole testers and developers should be held responsible.
Embrace the Agile Mindset
The strength of agile software development methodologies lies in the mindset of the team members. Unfortunately, in organizations that have been following traditional culture for years, it is hard for them to change and jump into the agile culture in a short period.
Solution: With patience and effort towards achieving the transformation, the software development team can eventually cultivate the agile culture in their workspace. Moreover, while onboarding new members, their ability to collaborate and work as a team must be assessed, and proper training should be provided.
Is Scrum the best framework in Agile Development Methodology?
The scrum methodology is a type of management system in software development that is based on incremental development. It is ideal for difficult projects as it makes complex tasks manageable. In fact, the event is thoroughly planned out with a clear vision to ensure transparency in software development. Moreover, small achievements keep the team energetic and motivated to complete the project before the deadline.
However, an organization will take time to completely understand how the Scrum framework works but its long-term benefits are worth time spent in the initial phase. Hence, yes scrum is the best framework in agile software development methodology.
The State of Agile Transformation in the Indian Subcontinent
To survive the uncertain and volatile waves of covid 19 companies were bound to go agile. While several countries adopted the agile software development methodologies, the research found that India is among the frontrunners in implementing the agile work culture.
The research was conducted by McKinsey & companies. More than 2000 companies were considered in the research, where it was found that going agile was among the top priorities of businesses in India. The Driving factor for the same was the belief of Indian companies that team alignment, amplified focus, and valuing all members of the organization lead to the creation of the best product and services for their users.
Benefits of Agile In Software development methodology
There are several benefits of agile methodology in software development. This section will walk through the significant benefits agile development brings to us.
Superior quality product
In the case of agile work-frame, the testing project execution includes testing the software developed, ensuring a higher quality of the product. Furthermore, the framework gives the flexibility to clients to get involved throughout the development process and ask for changes if required.
Customer satisfaction
In a traditional work frame, the customer’s point of view is considered only during the planning phase. However, in the case of agile software development methodologies, the customer is considered throughout the development. Keeping the customer in the loop and adapting to their feedback ensures that the final product solves their pain points.
Reduced risks
The development of software in agile methodologies is delivered in small sprints. So even if an approach doesn’t turn out to be as planned, the developers can still salvage it apart and use it in the future.
Wrapping it up
With ever-evolving technologies, the software built in an agile environment has a better chance to sustain the volatile and uncertain market. In fact, you will be surprised to learn that tecHindustan, the finest IT service company has adopted the agile software development method and witnessed remarkable growth ever since. Hence, if you are about to launch new software, hire organizations that work in an agile environment. Our team of experts is here to help you succeed with agile software development using Scrum.
